A new golden age? The prospects for science and innovation in the Islamic world.

With eye-catching investments like the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, the construction of the world’s first sustainable city in the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey’s dramatic increases in R&D spending, there are signs of renewed ambition and investment in education, science and innovation across the Islamic world which warrant greater attention.

This positioning paper, launched in June by the Royal Society, profiles some of these advances in science and innovation across the Islamic world, and reviews the barriers to further and faster progress.

The paper also introduces the Atlas of Islamic-World Science and Innovation project which builds in a practical way on the themes discussed in the paper, and which the Royal Society is coordinating in partnership with the Organisation of Islamic Conference and a range of international partners.